Game design and development is a highly resource-hungry task. Most game designers prefer custom PCs over laptops, but the hybrid work culture these days requires everyone, even game developers, to stay productive remotely. So, if you are a video game developer looking for a new laptop that does not hinder your productivity, you must choose very wisely.

You need a powerful laptop at the right price, especially if you are an indie game developer paying for your own device. Your laptop must be powerful enough to render your model and level designs so that you don’t have to discover that your overnight rendering has failed.

Why Choosing the Right Laptop for Game Devs Crucial?

Game designing is one of the most creative and complex jobs. An indie game developer needs knowledge of various fields, including animation, CGI, VFX, 3D geometry, programming, AI, algorithms, networking, audio engineering, pixel rendering, and many more. You need to be artistic and innovative and also need to understand the requirements of gamers out there. So, the job is far from being a simple IT-aided job.

With the new upcoming trends in AR, VR, Metaverse, etc., the world of video games is evolving faster than humankind itself. From rendering pixels to designing models and from playing the game to integrating multi-level VFX, game development will test the device’s capability at every step. Your laptop must also be vibrant enough to meet your multi-dimensional requirements.

This is why finding the right laptop for your needs is our specialty, and in this article, we’ve got you covered.

What are the Requirements for a Game Development Laptop?

While there are lots of great laptops out there, when you are looking for one that will compliment your productivity in developing games, you must look for the components, design, and aesthetics closely. Go through the below-mentioned technical aspects to consider before purchasing your next laptop for game development:

Better Display unit for better Visuals

The display unit plays the most crucial role in how clear the visuals are on the screen. Without a clear and proper display, it is impossible to determine the true color & visual aesthetics of any in-game components. A creative mind might brainstorm many new ideas, but the right can be chosen only when it is visible on screen.

A larger display always helps in designing but hampers portability because a larger screen means a larger & bulkier laptop. An FHD 1080p 14-inch display can suffice the needs of game designing, but 300 nits or higher for better brightness is recommended. Regarding refresh rate, 144 Hz or 165 Hz will be a great choice for a smoother visual experience. However, you can opt for a 3K or 4K display which can bring out the best graphics of your games. For example, the OMEN Laptop 15-en1037AX is a great laptop for gamers & game designers as it features a 15.6-inch, QHD (2560 x 1440), 165 Hz, 3 ms, IPS, micro-edge, anti-glare, and 300 nits display, all for a decent price.

Best CPU for Optimum Speed

Opting for a budget CPU is not recommended for game developers. The CPU is a computer’s lifeline and main engine, and in-game development is as important as can be. The game development system needs to be a powerhouse in terms of computation and rendering capability. So, you need to maximize your budget while choosing the CPU, and not the opposite.

If you are going to use game development platforms like Unity, Unreal Engine 3, frostbite, Cryengine, etc., then you are going to need the latest-gen Intel Core or Ryzen CPUs. If you opt for old gen CPUs, you might need to upgrade the system even before completing your game. So, compromising on a good processor isn’t an option.

You have to go for laptops featuring multi-core hyperthreading CPUs with at least 6-cores and 12-threads. The latest 12th gen Intel Core i7 or the 5th gen Ryzen 7 would be a great choice, to begin with. For high-end development, I would suggest going for the 12th Gen i9 or 6th Ryzen 9 CPU as a long-term investment.

I would recommend considering the HP ZBook Power G9 Mobile Workstation PC SKU 6G955UT, which comes with an Intel 12th gen Core i9 CPU with 32 GB DDR5 RAM (4800 MHz). This device features a dual GPU setup, NVIDIA RTX A1000 Laptop GPU (4 GB GDDR6 dedicated) with inbuilt Intel Iris-X GPU. This device costs more than 300,000 INR, but you can opt for a 12-month no-cost EMI directly from the HP Online Store.

RAM helps Processing Bandwidth

RAM compliments the CPU while working by storing data on high-speed memory modules and making it available for processing on call. So, the speed of RAM impacts a lot of good it can co-work with the CPU. Typically, 12th-gen Intel and 5th-gen Ryzen CPUs work at more than 4.0 GHz clock speed, so the RAM also needs to cope with speed. If you are using a CPU at 4.0 GHz and your RAM clock speed is 2400 MHz, then half of your CPU capacity is not being used, as the CPU has to wait for the RAM to deliver the data. So, opting for high-speed DDR5 RAM modules is compulsory for a game developer in 2022.

On the other hand, at the time of game development, you will be dealing with lots of large unoptimized files for rendering and modeling, which will require a larger memory size. While 8 GB or 16 GB RAM is enough for most consumer-level users these days, 32 GB is recommended for professional designers and game devs. Most custom game dev workstations contain 64 GB or 128 GB RAM for smoother performance. So, in the case of a laptop, if your budget allows you to opt for 64 GB or 128 GB RAM, then you must go for it.

If you want a gaming laptop for game development, then check out the OMEN by HP Laptop 16-b1371TX, which comes with 16 GB DDR5 4800 MHz RAM with Intel Core i7 12th-gen CPU for a reasonable price. If you go for it, make sure you avail the 5% instant cashback and 12-month no-cost EMI using your SBI card on HP online store.

Significant Storage

At the time of game development, you will be dealing with files of gigantic sizes. So, laptops with 256 GB or 512 GB SSD are not even close to your storage requirements. You must opt for 1 TB M.2 SSD at the very least, if not more. Also, you must opt for a laptop that allows you to add an additional internal SSD or HDD to expand the storage.

Sooner or later, you are going to run out of storage as a game developer. For the same reason, your laptop must contain a high-speed USB 3.1 so that you can use external storage devices at high speed. So, storage will always be a coherent issue for you.

Graphics Card is a Must

While rendering is more CPU intensive than GPU, you still need an extremely powerful GPU to share the CPU load so that you can minimize the processing time. Also, while testing games or designing levels, you will need a GPU to maintain FPS and smoothness. Depending upon your project requirements, you can also configure the rendering part to be GPU intensive instead of CPU so that you can keep working with other stuff on CPU power.

Game development is an all-around visual element, so the GPU is now and always will be the most important component for such a task. While talking about VRAM, you must opt for 4 GB VRAM at least, but I recommend going for 8 GB for better scalability. Most professional designing workstations contain 16 GB or more VRAM to power the designers’ creativity.

There is one more crucial point to consider before choosing a GPU for game development. Though it is all about game development, still entry-level gaming GPUs like the Nvidia GeForce cards are not the best choice. Instead, Nvidia Quadro RTX GPUs or the high-end gaming GPUs like Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 and 3080 are a much better choice for game dev requirements. The same logic goes for AMD Radeon GPU, where the Radeon Pro W6000 series would be better for a game dev than Radeon RX GPUs.

You can check out the upcoming OMEN by HP Laptop 16-b1371TX, which is powered by the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 (8 GB GDDR6).

Verdict

If you have gone through the above points, you already understand that a game development laptop would be a considerable investment. No business laptop or entry-level gaming laptop can suffice the need for game dev. Even as a learner or newcomer, you might have to face compatibility and performance issues with entry-level laptops.

Every game developer deserves a powerful device that helps bring out the best of them. The device will help you run new ideas, improve creativity, and increase productivity. As it is a significant investment for your chosen career, invest wisely.

Check out the HP Online store to find such suitable OMEN gaming laptops at a fair price.